Today is the Sunday before my finals week. I actually only have two finals; a large micro-economics final and a take home probabilistic method final. I’ve already spent about 5 hours working on the take-home final and I’m terrified about the micro final on Wednesday night. Friday was the last day of classes, so I’ve had a few days to compile my thoughts about my first quarter.  I have to admit that I didn’t do a very good job following my own advice but I will be following it next quarter.

The below list can also be titled, “How I am going to do better next quarter”

• Study Early, Study Often. This sounds really cliche but it is the most important thing you can do. Do *all* readings, buy all the books required for the course, and after every session, go through and type up your notes. The coursework on the PhD level is so much more intense than a Masters or Bachelors program. I’ve had some course sessions where they covered an entire undergrad quarter in a single session.
• Type up your Notes. See the above comments. I plan on doing this for all of my courses next time. For every hour of notes, you’ll have to spend at least 30-45 minutes reviewing and typing them up.
• Study on Saturday Nights. This sounds terrifying, I know. The nice thing about Saturday nights is that you’ll be the only one studying, so you can get a lot done. I consider this the price of getting a PhD.  I prefer to go out on Friday nights and spend Saturday and Sunday nights studying.
• Try Not to TA Your First Quarter. This may be unavoidable for some but I’d suggest not TAing your first quarter. It can be very time consuming, especially if you’re not totally familiar with the material yourself (or you’re rusty from not having taken the class in a long time).  I had to drop my third class in lieu of my TA position, since I couldn’t handle all of the workload.  However, being a TA is generally a positive experience, so I do suggest doing it at some point.
• Spend Time Outside of the Office. Not all PhD students get an office but those of you that do; don’t spend too much time in your office talking to people. It can be easy to spend an entire workday (9-5) in your office talking to colleagues, professors, etc. If you can get out of your office and go to a cafe or the library, you’ll have more time to focus on the material.
• Walk Everywhere. Being a PhD student means that the only free-time you have will be at times when nobody else in the world is awake (3am, usually). It’s really hard to get a decent workout at 3am – most gyms are closed and you’re probably burned out.  The best way I found to stay in moderately healthy shape was to walk everywhere – from my apartment a mile from campus, to campus, to town, etc.  Also, the food that you’ll eat on campus is probably terrible for you; so you’ll have to work off the extra calories.
• Go to Office Hours. After you type up the material, you’ll probably have a dozen questions that you didn’t ask during class. Go to office hours; it’s a good chance to network with colleagues (other PhD students) and helps with the material.
• Read the Book First. If possible, try to read the course text before the class starts. This sounds unreasonable, but will help immensely and spreading out the work later on.